IndyCar: Ryan Hunter-Reay makes it two wins in a row

Newton
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Another race on a short-oval track. Another rain delay pushes back the start of the race. Another win for Ryan Hunter-Reay.

A week ago in Wisconsin, rains held up the start of the Milwaukee IndyFest by 90 minutes. When the race was over, Hunter-Reay drove into Victory Lane. Saturday night, a thunderstorm pushed back the start of the Iowa Corn Indy 250 by 40 minutes. It didn’t seem to bother Hunter-Reay, who cruised to his second consecutive win.

“Thanks, guys. It’s really great to see you all in here. That’s what I said last week when we won in Milwaukee,” Hunter-Reay said after the race. “I want to do it more often.”

Hunter-Reay’s latest win is likely the easiest he will ever get. All he had to do was count down the final three laps as the race finished under yellow-flag conditions. When Katherine Legge made contact with the wall on Lap 247, Hunter-Reay drove the final laps around the one-mile circuit under the caution flag.

“I said it was hard work last weekend at The (Milwaukee) Mile, but these short ovals, they’re just a handful.” The race winner said his success on Saturday night owed a lot to the work done by his team. “I really have to thank my teammate Marco Andretti and the 26 team for coming here, testing. We basically raced what they came up with in the test.”

Andretti, who won the 2011 edition of the Iowa race, finished second this time around. Tony Kanaan followed his runner-up position last week in Wisconsin with a third-place finish in Iowa. Kanaan started way back on the grid, in position 19, and clawed his way through the field for his third podium finish of the 2012 season.

“We are improving every race,” Kanaan said. “Obviously, I wish I could have started a little further up, but it was a long day for us, but it was not a good result. Hopefully, we will get the win soon.”

Hunter-Reay’s back-to-back wins moves him into second place in the IZOD IndyCar Series, just behind leader Will Power. In third place is Scott Dixon, who looked ahead two weeks time and the Honda Indy Toronto, which is the next stop on the schedule.

“We are looking forward to Toronto and racing on the street course,” he said after the race.